From a Waitress to the Owner of a Mini-Empire

Trinity and the Pope, in Asbury Park, has a Creole and Cajun theme.Credit
Alex di Suvero for The New York Times

ASBURY PARK, N.J.

MARILYN SCHLOSSBACH may run a mini-empire of restaurants on the Jersey Shore now, but her career did not begin brilliantly. Not at all.

Back in 1985, on her first weekend as floor manager of a restaurant in Avon owned by her brother, Richard Schlossbach, the chef quit.

Ms. Schlossbach, 45, had never cooked anything, she recalled recently. She had been a waitress before her promotion at the restaurant, named Oshin and since closed.

“I was in the kitchen on this huge portable phone with my brother,” she said. “I’m going, ‘What’s the tuna supposed to look like? When are you supposed to turn it over?’ I knew how it was supposed to look on the plate, but I didn’t know how to get it there.”

Their restaurants have 200 employees, and last year they rang up more than $3 million in business. Within their domain are Trinity and the Pope, with a Creole and Cajun theme, which opened in Asbury Park last month; Langosta Lounge, which opened in 2008 and serves what Ms. Schlossbach calls “vacation food — a mix of Mexican, Caribbean and Asian,” including sushi; two seasonal casual Mexican spots called Pop’s Garage, one in Normandy Beach that opened in 2008 and one in Asbury Park that came a year later (a third, which will be open year round, is planned for Shrewsbury this fall); and Labrador Lounge, in Normandy Beach, which opened in 2005 and has a menu similar to Langosta’s. (Richard Schlossbach is a third co-owner of Trinity and the Pope and Langosta Lounge.)

Photo

Marilyn Schlossbach, top left, is executive chef at the five restaurants she co-owns, including Trinity and the Pope in Asbury Park.Credit
Alex di Suvero for The New York Times

Their newest venture, Dauphin Grill, a new restaurant in the Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Park, is expected to open soon; the bar opens this weekend.

Labrador Lounge, whose liquor license is limited to New Jersey wines — Langosta Lounge and Trinity and the Pope have full bars — is special to Ms. Schlossbach. It is the first restaurant she opened with Mr. Szegeski, who, like her, is an avid surfer. Before that, in the 1990s, she owned restaurants including the tiny, beachside Rosalie’s, in Bay Head, and Karma Cafe, in Belmar, without a partner; both have since closed.

The couple met in 1995 and married in 2006; Mr. Szegeski works in the restaurants’ kitchens and also runs Lightly Salted, a surf shop inside Langosta Lounge. They live in a three-bedroom apartment above Labrador Lounge, alongside six of their employees, who “help us take care of the place in exchange for room and board,” Ms. Schlossbach said.

“I make my coffee in the waiters’ station every morning, then take the dogs out to run,” said Ms. Schlossbach, who was raised in Belmar; her parents ran a real estate business there.

Labrador Lounge is named for the couple’s two part-Labrador dogs. On the day of the restaurant’s opening, they threw a “puppy shower,” inviting those who were adopting dogs from a litter of 13. Likewise, when Trinity and the Pope opened, they hired a New Orleans-style brass band to march through the streets of Asbury Park.

“We always try and do something a little fun,” Ms. Schlossbach said.

Her low-key surfer style spills into her personal beliefs. She is a Buddhist, she said, and a subscriber to the idea that giving is its own reward. “I love the feeling of making people happy through food,” she said. “It’s very comforting.” But she doesn’t stop there. Earlier this year, she founded a group called the Coalition of Pastors for Haiti, based in Asbury Park, which continues to work with the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity to provide aid to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

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Pork belly with parsnip puree and cabbage slaw.Credit
Alex di Suvero for The New York Times

Closer to home, from mid-June through October, she coordinates the Carousel Farmers Market in Asbury Park, held every Thursday, with two employees. Sixteen local farmers are represented. “At the end of the day, everything left I buy,” Ms. Schlossbach said. The items are then distributed among her restaurants, and menu adjustments are made to incorporate the fresh ingredients.

“I’m trying to educate the local community” in the ways of sustainable eating, she said.

She is not reluctant to ask for advice, even where her businesses are concerned. Trinity and the Pope’s name derives from a Cajun and Creole cooking class Ms. Schlossbach attended in New Orleans, where she was told that celery, onions and peppers (“the trinity”) go into every dish before garlic (“the pope”) is added. “So then this place came along and I told my brother the name,” she said. “He said, ‘You can’t do that! People will be offended.’ ”

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So she “called a couple of priests I know: ‘Is this bad? Can I do this?’ ” Ms. Schlossbach said.

In the end, she received their blessings.

Following are the restaurants owned by Ms. Schlossbach and Mr. Szegeski; Ms. Schlossbach’s brother, Richard Schlossbach, is a co-owner of Trinity and the Pope and Langosta Lounge. Dauphin Grill, also in Asbury Park, is scheduled to open soon.

A version of this article appears in print on June 20, 2010, on Page NJ9 of the New York edition with the headline: From a Waitress To the Owner Of a Mini-Empire. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe